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Press TV has interviewed Nabil Mikhail, a professor, George Washington University, from Washington, to discuss the recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report which condemns killings by al-Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq, calling such acts “crimes against humanity.”

- I wanted to ask about this Human Rights Watch report vis-à-vis the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).

- It’s an important document. It’s a good announcement. It’s timely. The United States is witnessing many important changes.

The basic idea would be for the United States to support and endorse that recourse because there should not be any delay condemning al-Qaeda operations, condemning the ISIL operations.

I think there should be a statement by the State Department declaring that Human Rights Watch did a good job.

There should also be an effort to stop al-Qaeda from operating in Iraq....

- Going forward, though, when we speak about the ISIL in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki’s upcoming actions against it in places like Fallujah, how are you expecting that to work out?

- It’s very, very important. I can tell you here from Washington that so many people are watching the strategic landscape in Iraq and are expecting important developments, once the Iraqi army is deployed in the province of Kandahar and the different areas around. This is something that interests Washington.

I along with other analysts think that the Iraqi army will score success in its combat against terror groups. The problem is how to reconcile with the local population, how to achieve stability, how to prevent the appearance of that phenomenon in other areas.

It’s a major military operation and I expect that the Department of Defense in America, the Pentagon, will be watching carefully. This is definitely a strategic showdown.

- Indeed. Professor, there’s also been a lot of attempts to speak about this as a sectarian issue more than a political one. How do you see that?

- Of course it is not a sectarian issue. It is not a religious fight. We respect the Sunni population, we respect the Shia population, we respect the Muslim population, and we respect the Christian population. It is something that is not denominational. It is for Iraq to keep its land unified and integrated.